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LAST UPDATE | 9 May 2023
Daragh Brophy reports from Liverpool:
IRELAND’S WILD YOUTH have crashed out of the Eurovision Song Contest at the semi-final stage.
15 acts were competing in tonight’s contest in the hope of snatching one of ten places up for grabs in the final.
The Dublin group’s song, We Are One, failed to make the grade when the finalists were announced at the end of this evening’s show at the Liverpool Arena.
The last Irish contestant to make it to the contest final was Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2018.
Our last top ten finish was back in 2011 when Jedward’s Lipstick made it to 8th place in the final.
It’s not yet known where Wild Youth finished in the leaderboard, but full results will be revealed in the coming days.
In a change to the usual format, voting in the two semi-finals of the contest is being conducted solely by public vote with the professional juries only featuring in Saturday’s grand final.
In another change, a voting option has also been introduced to give viewers in the ‘rest of the world’ a chance to have their say.
The ten finalists from tonight are: Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czechia, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Norway.
The head of the Irish delegation, Micheal Kealy, said in a statement tonight that they were “extremely proud of Wild Youth”.
“They put on a brilliant performance and were fantastic representatives for Ireland.”
Outside the venue, Irish fans who spoke to The Journal were disappointed but the consensus was that the band acquitted themselves well in the contest.
One fan said they were a little mystified at the result as the performance had gone over well in the arena.
Several said RTÉ needed to change their approach to the contest, and called for an overhaul of the national selection process.
The contest, being hosted by the BBC on behalf of last year’s winners Ukraine, had Ukrainian touches throughout tonight’s show. In an unexpected turn of events, there was also a cameo from a certain Irish turkey puppet, who was last seen gracing the Eurovision stage (with less than spectacular results) as our 2008 entrant.
Kyiv-born alternative rocker Julia Sanina was among the three co-costs, alongside singer Alesha Dixon and actor Hannah Waddingham. Graham Norton will join the trio on stage as co-presenter for Saturday’s decider.
As expected, favourites like Finland and Sweden generated some of the biggest responses from the capacity crowd on the night.
Unicorn, by Israel’s Noa Kirel, and Croatia’s bizarre anti-war barnstormer Mama SC from veteran rockers Let 3 also seem to be going down particularly well with fans.
Daragh Brophy / TwitterEurovision still not quite 'getting' Dustin the Turkey. pic.twitter.com/SmKIm9gxgH
— Daragh Brophy (@DaraghBroph) May 9, 2023
The second semi-final takes place on Thursday night, when another 16 acts will compete for the remaining ten spots in the final.
Six other acts go straight through to the final – last year’s winners Ukraine and the so-called ‘Big Five’ countries of the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy who always get a bye into the decider as they pay a greater share towards organising the contest each year.
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”Wild Youth” The most ironic name for a band ever..They are about as Wild as a decade of the rosary.
@Redseat92: ah they are pretty wild in fairness. They once stayed up after past half ten on a school night.
@Redseat92: It always feels like we’re trying to crack some code for success rather than promoting music that’s real and raw. We’ve had a decade or more of eurovision entries that even Irish people can’t relate to.
@Redseat92:
They danced to the politically correct tune ..
What goes around comes around
@Redseat92: it’s like a name thought up by a group of aging GAA comma-tee members trying to be hip and cool with the kids.
Why do we bother to enter anymore?
@Paul Guckian: I agree. The “music” is crappie. Why be associated with it at all.
WHAT! No way. Shock, horror.
A generic vapid pop song where theme is being United in peace and happiness. Dear lord. Have we not moved past this nonsense?
@Don’t Forget: what’s another year?
Time to leave, absolute farce
@redmarkod: how’s it a farce? Our entry was awful. We don’t deserve a place.
Sold out to the woke brigade… good enough for them…
Tbf last year we sent a decent song and crashed out too , seems pointless to make an effort
@Seán O’Sullivan: but last year had to be Ukraine’s year.
@Seán O’Sullivan: I don’t agree, this year was as bad as last year in my opinion. RTE seem to pick these people off the street randomly. If we are going to participate we need to look at how we select songs and performers. We also need to get rid of that oaf Marty Whelan – I’m not being ageist – but can we find somebody who doesn’t every year say “we were robbed”.
@Gerard Seery: Can’t listen to him at all . He is trying to imitate the inimitable Terry Wogan and not succeeding at all
It’s almost like getting talentless drones with connections in RTE to write the songs just isn’t working.
Can Ireland please forget about this Eurovision. Complete waste of time.
Why spend the money in sending over when we never qualify
@Derek hutchings: bit like the football Derek.
@Derek hutchings: winners never quit, quitters never win
Go woke go broke….
Pity, fair play to the lads all the same.
In fairness..our song was better then some of the s**te that did go through.
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: Croatia terrible Serbia shocking Czech shocking
@Damien Mitchell: and as for Croatia…ffs
Its no longer a “song contest” and that’s fine, needs to be a show in a song and we just are playing by 1980s rules and they, much like the selection process, is outdated.
@Seán Ryan: This!
Eurovision is now a visual as well as a musical contest, we just made no effort on the visual.
If this is today’s wild youth…
I fear for the future
RTE in it’s heyday won seven Eurovision contests, including three in a row. Unbroken record, I worked on them all and knew the clever talented minds behind those wins, it was not luck nor chance just superb talented production creators with guidance to the performers. Sad to see the limp hyped up direction less attempts recently.
Rte need serious words with waldrode and allowing him to look like he wasn’t singing at some part. Great song and I feel sorry for the lads when they were backed up by clearly incompetent make up, Waldrop and stage management. RTE need to step back and let someone else manage the act.
@Trevor Gardiner: What’s a waldrode or a Waldrop????
@Carm(Orange Vampire): Was a waldrobe with a mangina!
@Carm(Orange Vampire): sorry was writing on my phone and wasnt paying attention. Clearly my dyslexia got the better of me.
That photograph on the top makes him look like his arse is on backwards! Awful outfit
Ah Jaysus, thought we’d a right good chance of winning it this year. Gutted. Some strike by De Bruyne though!
@Ray Barry: lol…..brill
For a fan of Eurovision, the new format of qualifying has absolutely ruined it. The night itself is such an amazing occasion and now that we rarely qualify it’s like an exclusion from the main event. I wish they would just go back to the old way. Losing on the night never feels as bad as not qualifying.
I hope yerman is OK after the 4 minutes he spent in that onesie. Didn’t look at all comfortable!! He looked like he was turning up to an Elvis convention……and tbf he had a good stab at a later years Elvis impersonation
Hardly surprising given that the song was awful and they decided to get involved in the culture wars last week with JK Rowling denouncing them.
Embarrassing
@Alan Pender:
LOL
Alas no matter how good of an act we send over there, as long as its down to public votes, Ireland wont qualify as block voting will cast us aside
Delighted Mild Youth ‘crashed out’! How dramatic, not! Dreadful song, mediocre band.
“Crashed out”
Just knock the whole lot on the head
Hardly surprising.
Why can we not produce a song to suit our country. We have fabulous music and singers and the songs that go forward these days dont represent Ireland
Im sorry I watched it. Never again.
Not our worst song ever but the ridiculous outfit & lack of charisma to go with it made the whole thing amateurish. Embarrassing.
@Hotirish:
we are won
we just Lost !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a joke Israel got through
@Eoin Fitzgerald: pretty simple why, they had a much better song and a decent singer.
@Richard Keogh: they’re not even in Europe
@Eoin Fitzgerald: Maybe it’s the expansion of the eurovision that’s really upsetting Putin?
@Eoin Fitzgerald: Why is a joke? I thought it was a good song and dance routine.
It was the gold suit put people off voting
@Tony O Neill: pissy legs. It’s like a baby’s onesie..
@Gummo: haha you’re so right
Two predictable verses written by chat gpt and a “catchy” singalong chorus. Took about 5 minutes to write. See Tantacrul on YouTube on how to write a eurovision song.
Delighted for them ,after sacking that man for having an opinion,a waste of state money
@Fran Mooney:
too good for them
More chance of Mayo winning an All Ireland than Ireland winning the Eurovision these days
The lead singer is wearing a gold catsuit , the song is dire and people expect to qualify
@Dicki Daly:
wee are won
we just lost !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Karma
Shock horror
Time to pack it in.
How did Dustin get in? Ireland song was predictably dreadful.
Well Holy God
Too much moose knuckle for the public.
Look at the other 4 countries that didn’t qualify..miles better than ireland..ireland can’t complain
No one;not even Liberace,ever looked good in gold latex .
@Liz O’Neill: ah liz…bet you do ; )
@Liz O’Neill: Freddie Mercury did.
It’s a farce now and has been political for years!
@Colette Kearns:
the 2018 song from France . “Mercy”
it was lovely
Ah well What’s another year
@Jonathan O’Keeffe: that’s rock and roll kids
How did the European nation of Australia do?
Cringeworthy song contest .
People complaining about block voting seem to easily forget how little that has impacted the winner of Eurovision for quite a few years now. The nadir of that practice was around 15 years ago. The UK is hosting it jointly this year as evidence that a good song can get you somewhere. Ireland continually sends bland songs out to be disposed of.
But even by bland terms Wild Youth were poor. Say what you want about the song but Brook Scullion last year looked like she belonged at the contest. Wild Youth seemed embarrassed and not in the mood. And now that they have whipped up faux outrage by firing their creative director, and are posting about not qualifying like sore losers, I feel the contest just wasn’t for them at all. Johnny Rotten would have got the novelty factor that Eurovision wants.
What a shame. It was a great performance.
They deserved to go through.
If for some reason there is an appetite for this competition then make it fair.
Have 3 languages that a song can be sung in. Maybe, French/German, English and Russian.
Introduction them as song 1 song 2 song 3 etc, do not mention what country is being represented by any song.
Let no country hear their own entry before the contest.
If it’s about a song then let it be a radio contest, no need for it to be televised nor for people to see the singer.
Once these conditions are met then we are somewhere close to having a fair competition. Until then it should be boycotted
@Carm(Orange Vampire): That sounds like the most boring idea for a song contest ever though. The EBU would collapse if that was next years idea.
And if it was a language, Russian would be disqualified. Far likelier to have the ‘Big 5′ languages if that idea would be used.
@Carm(Orange Vampire): You mention a song in “Russian”. Your “conditions” sound very “Putinesque”. Are you a Russian bot working in a converted warehouse in St. Petersburg?
1st!! When I grew up we were winning these not qualifying is a disaster! With all the good singers we have can we not get anyone to get us to least the final. Would have picked Johnny rotten!
Wokey wild youth. Different kinda wild.
We can complain about the supposedly fixed system as much as we want but ultimately our whole system for the Eurovision has been failing us for years. Bland songs chosen by committees of out of touch people in RTE who think they know what will make a splash even though it’s never anything new or different. They refuse to put any real effort into the presentation of the performance despite the fact that in this day and age it’s the outlandish and crazy that grabs attention not just a bang average song performed well by a well meaning I’m sure they’re lovely young performer. It’s a shambles and until we actually put in the effort behind the scenes we won’t win any time soon regardless of politics, sure the UK do well now so it’s not that political
The whole thing was awful, from the singing to the fashion but wasn’t the worse song by any stretch ,, rte need to pull the plug on this as it’s wasting tax payers money ,,, unless rte let someone else takeover it.
We shouldn’t dignify this load of rubbish by entering,it’s well past time to call a halt.
Wardrobe was awful, and those trousers in main pic look like his backside!
BEJAZIZ NOOOO
That’s my year ruined so.
It must be Eamon The Ryans fault.
Was he on the drums or something ?
How can Israel be represented in the euro vision, when it’s not part of Europe, but the middle east.
@John O Mahony: Wait until you see who is playing in the next semi finals…
@John O Mahony: Yes, Israel is in the middle east, but it is a member of Eurovision Broadcasting, as is another participant – Australia.
@Gerard Seery: shouldn’t be in it
@Paul Cunningham: I won’t see as I don’t watch it thank god
Luckily nobody from Great Britain could vote tonight (strange new rule) or we might have qualified .
What are the odds Ukraine will win again anyways?
@Keth Tgi:
political bull . s h i t
Johnny Rotten would have qualified , just saying
Nothing to do with Music,
so disappointed for the lads
The Sweden entry was in a different league to everyone
Johnny Rotten
Should have sent Cruachan
Surprise surprise, ah well, well done lads
Well you know, in and out the door and giddy up. Shave a bullock.
@David Burns: What a pro
Brilliant.
Surprise Surprise
So uh, Where the Streets Have No Name called and want their song back now.
Why is anyone surprised that a cloyingly sugared attempt at a current cultural virtue signaling anthem by a mediocre band, that (btw) was a copy of a beloved Irish song failed to get liked? There was ZERO artistic cred to this song & band and surprise…. people recognized the cringey outcome.
Surprise surprise
Good band but not quiet ready for such a big stage lack of experience and nerves got them on the night ……Time to give up this charade. ”Wild” Youth? might need re-naming.
Ahhh the irony of singing about being different and unique using the most samey and generic song straight out of the X-Factor / Britain’s Got Talent middle shelf.
Every one of the 7 songs we have won in the past were slowish love songs we can’t and shouldn’t try to keep up with the pyro/visual effects and hopping around a stage of our euro counterparts go back to what we good at I say
@Oran Peat: hey jedward weren’t half bad….they were prob the most honest act in a couple decades….
@Oran Peat: You’re on the money Oran, the to marketing trick in my time was to go different not to compete with the current trend crap. Something with style, quality and dignity
@William Slevin:
they called the Queen their hero then they tweeted they hated the monarchy
that’s honest ..
Ireland is at the edge of Europe and doesn’t have the advantage of close neighbours to boost our scores. The big 5 don’t need to qualify, so they aren’t included in the voting. The eastern European countries have closer ties, with migration into neighbours giving them the advantage of people voting for their home country.
A half decent song isn’t going to do it. We would have to have an absolute cracker (Euphoria level) to stand any chance of breaking out of the top ten and finishing highly in the final.
With full audience voting, the task becomes even harder.
Dustin should have done a streaker
@briar: near enough, you could see his giblets.
@Terry Fagan: one if his hairy giblets was sticking out the leg of his shorts. Is s/he a hen or a cock??
I think the important thing in all of this is that Wild Youth are in favour of men changing in women’s dressing
All else is intolerance
They are national heroes I’m sure
The main picture looks like a scene from a Ben stiller movie.
Awful song, awful performance, so zero surprise
Nice crack.
Whoops – women’s dressing rooms
Even making up a news story to get a bit of attention in the weeks before the contest didn’t work for us! We are never going to qualify again because of all the block voting. Same name but it’s a different contest now. Great song but nerves on the night.
Maybe they were a bit too rock and roll?
It must be Eamon Ryan’s fault.
Was he on the drums or something ?
Beginning to understand how Italy feel in the six nations… We want to quit but we can’t because we will be seen as sore losers.
This whole comment section is insane
Instantly forgettable. There’s nothing to hum. That’s how you know a good Eurovision song you dings yourellf hours later humming parts of it. This song just didn’t have that.
We should have sent Cruachan instead, Much better song and band.
I cannot understand the results of the publuc vote. Bizarre.
They’ve just broken the Eurovision, used to be great coming home after a feed of pints and laughing at Moldova and saying nul pwon for a week.
Should have sung in their Reg Grundies.
RTE do not want to win if they did they would go back to the system that give us so many winners we have win nothing since they changed so that says they are happy with the results.
I’d love to know the reason the UK couldn’t vote last night? They are allowed vote in the next semi-final… found that very odd.. wild youth should have been in the top ten.
Tbh the song is boring and lacks that uniqueness that grasps people even for the wrong reasons. We will never win using this format. I think the format needs to be sexy, electronic, and a bit of a circus act
It’s a big thing on the continent and seemingly a scratchy back thing no matter how good or bad the song is, people vote for the country not the song, last year the winner had to be Ukraine for obvious reasons so it ceased being a contest and more like a benefit gig
Despite the overwhelming delusions of most Irish people, we’re actually not that popular or well liked abroad unfortunately. But despite the song being pretty mediocre it certainly deserved to go through ahead of lads jumping around in their underpants
Dreadful formulaic song, the performance lacking in visuals and charisma. An arrangement if 30 words. Lazy and self-indulgent. You need to be 9 foot tall with 7 foot legs to successfully wear and pull off a gold onesie. Or look like David Bowie during his heroin phase. Next year send someone stunningly beautiful, with a bonkers song, and like Dustin, one of his hairy giblets on display from the side of his shorts.
The problem is Ireland sends generic cookie cutter pop songs thinking it’s a guarantee for success. A traditional Irish song would go much further with the Eurovision audience. The songs that go far often represent local culture, are sang in local languages and vary in genre of music. Or alternatively, are very unique. We as the public cannot vote for generic pop songs if we want to go far
Realistically, why should someone in the Czech Republic (for example) vote for Ireland. We need to get something that will get the house behind us – not just generic euro pop that ticks the RTE box. We have to capture the audience and get them all up and dancing!!! Otherwise, it will always be nice but forgettable.
have your say